Wish I May
by Fuyumi
Summary: Harry and Hermione wake up to a surprise one morning after having too much to drink the night before.
1. A Morning Surprise

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer: **I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part I : A Morning Surprise**

Harry had never felt so good in his life. His limbs felt a bit heavy but that was just fine as he did not want to move from the bed. He was utterly content just lying there. 

Then his mind started working. He wasn't alone in bed. There was someone with him—a someone whose waist he was embracing and whose hair smelled of cinnamon. 

There was only one girl he knew that smelled like cinnamon. Her eyes matched that sweet and spicy scent. Harry knew very well how she smelled considering that he had known her for almost a decade. and for the longest time, she had been the girl closest to his heart. 

Harry opened his eyes to confirm what he thought. His worst fears were realized as he glanced briefly at the girl slumbering at his side. 

He had slept with Hermione Granger. 

"Fuck!" Harry cursed as he tried to disentangle himself and get out of bed. What the hell had he been thinking! Or rather, it was pretty damn obvious that he had been thinking with the wrong head. With that thought, he finally managed to extract himself out of bed without waking Hermione up. He sat on the edge of the bed and then turned around to look at her. 

God, she was so beautiful. 

Harry couldn't ever remember falling in love with her. He had literally woken up one morning during their seventh year to the realization that he did love her. He loved her so much that the sheer intensity of it scared him. Waking up that morning to that fact had been bad enough. Eating breakfast that morning had been the worst memory of his life. Harry had constantly stared at Hermione, hoping for some hint that she felt more than just mere friendship for him. 

That hint had never come. 

It had not come that morning or that evening. He had watched Hermione vigilantly for several weeks but she never seemed to think of him in that way at all. In the end, he had decided to put his feelings aside and date other girls. However, he seemed unable to get her out of his mind. She spent so much time with him, even after Hogwarts, that it had been impossible for him to move on. Sometimes Harry suspected that he loved her too well to ever move on. 

Despite his feelings for her, he still could not believe that he had completely screwed up and slept with her. He knew that Hermione had wanted to wait till marriage. Now thanks to him, she wouldn't get that chance. 

His memory, although a bit blurry, told him that she had been more than willing. In fact, if he remembered correctly, she had kissed him first. That didn't matter. He couldn't escape the blame using that excuse. He had known at the time that she had more to drink than what was good for her. 

Unfortunately, the same could have been said of him. If he had not been drinking, Harry had no doubt that he would have been able to control himself and push her away for her own sake. But no, he just had to have one drink too many and when she had come on to him—he hadn't been able to resist. He had dreamed so long about having her that he didn't stop her. Harry did not know how exactly they had managed to work their way back to his place but the memory of everything they did together was burned into his head. He wished desperately that they would do it all again. 

That wasn't likely. It was hard to imagine that Hermione would be happy with last night. In fact, given her views about sex before marriage, he couldn't blame her if she was completely upset at him for the events of last night. 

Harry just hoped that she wouldn't hate him for too long. It was hard enough to keep breathing knowing that she didn't love him like he loved her. Harry didn't think that he could live with the knowledge that she hated him and did not want a single thing to do with him. 

At the very least, he wouldn't die of suspense. Hermione was now stirring and he would soon enough know what she thought about last night. 

***** 

Hermione woke up from her dream, feeling completely sated. For the first time in her life, she felt complete. She did not know what exactly had happened, but whatever it was, it had to be a good thing. 

But as the dullness of sleep crept from her mind, she felt bereft, as if a part of her had been ripped off. Something precious was missing and she felt so alone. 

That's when she woke up. And with that, memories of last night came to her, brilliantly bright and surprisingly sweet. 

That sensation lasted only for a moment before Hermione started cursing her luck. Whatever had possessed her to drink so much! She knew perfectly well that too much alcohol could cause a person to lose their inhibitions. And she knew just as well that losing her inhibitions around Harry Potter was a bad thing to do. 

Hermione's feelings for Harry had went far beyond friendship for quite some time now. It all started with a small crush she had during their fourth year. She must have sounded like a complete idiot the way she always talked about him. Somewhere along the way, however, her feelings had grown from that small crush into something much bigger. Hermione had thought that it was just a crush and eventually go away. She had never been more wrong in her entire life. It didn't go away—it grew until it became something entirely new. Sometime during the middle of the fifth year, she had finally admitted to herself what she had been suspecting for a couple months. She was completely in love with Harry. 

She knew everything about him—she often knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. She always was able to gauge his mood and all too often during school his moods had been awfully blue. She could not watch him go through his troubles without doing something to help. The problem was, the more time she spent with him, the more she came to love him. That would never do seeing as he didn't have the same feelings for her. 

Instead, Hermione had watched Harry go through a succession of girlfriends. There had been a brief relationship with Cho Chang, the first girl he had ever noticed. She could have told him that would not have worked out considering their history together. After that, Harry had somehow managed to move on to Lavender Brown. Those months had been unbearable, with Lavender constantly crowing about what she and Harry had done. At least Hermione thought Cho was a sweet girl who would have been good for Harry. Hermione did not have any charitable thoughts towards her materialistic and gossipy roommate. Then there came a couple dates with Ginny, who had been so ecstatic. The list went on and on but never did her name appear on it. 

That had hurt so much. Hermione suspected that her heart would never recover from the wounds inflicted during those years. Each and every time she saw Harry with another girl, she just wanted to cry. In the end, she had decided to keep her feelings buried where no one would ever see them. Hermione fancied that only Crookshanks knew about what she felt and she could not escape that revelation. Crookshanks had been her only comfort on those occasions when she wound up softly crying alone in her room. Aside from her cat, however, no one knew. If she could not have the one she loved, then she damn well could at least keep her pride. 

Except it looked like she would no longer have even that. Her memory was all too clear about who had initiated everything. She had kissed him first. Of course he had responded—he probably could not help himself considering how many drinks he had had. His reaction was probably instinctive. Hermione was willing to bet that even now Harry was regretting what they had done last night. 

After all, why else would he have left the bed and left her all alone? 

There was nothing that she could do. She would just have to face the day and pray that Harry wouldn't hate her. It had hurt when she realized that he would never consider her as anything more than a friend. She didn't want to think about what sort of pain she would be in if he decided to end their friendship then and there. 

With that thought, Hermione opened her eyes to face her fate.   
  
  
  
  


**Author's note**—Yes I know. The whole morning after scenario has been a bit overused in many fandoms. That being said, I don't recall it every applying to the H/Hr relationship and so I went ahead and wrote this damn thing, especially considering that this plot bunny was being very persistent. *sigh* I would love to know what you think about this one, good or bad. Since you've already read so far, could you please do me the favor of leaving a review as well? Thanks.   



	2. A Loaded Conversation

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer: **I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part II : A Loaded Conversation**

Hermione blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to accustom them to the morning's light. Considering how many drinks she had consumed, it was surprising that she wasn't having more problems with her vision. On that line of thought, it was surprising that she did not have a hangover. She supposed that the answer to that mystery was that shock was the best cure for one. And she had most definitely had a shock this morning. Hermione still couldn't believe that she had actually slept with Harry. Yes, she had often dreamed about him reciprocating her feelings and them being together in every single possible way, but she had also known better. He didn't like her like that. 

There was nothing she could do to change that. No one was ever given a guarantee in life that the one you loved would love you back. 

Hermione sighed. She just hoped that he had not stomped out of the room angrily. She would have heard that, right? 

Her eyes gave her the answer as her vision came into focus. He hadn't left the room. He was still there, sitting on the edge of the bed. 

Once again, she was struck at how handsome he had become. There was a time when all of them thought that Harry would always be skinny and scrawny. She herself had put that up to him having to fight his pig of a cousin for food over at the Dursleys' house. No one was more astonished when he had come back for their sixth year. Harry had finally entered his growth spurt. While he never became as tall as Ron, he was considerably broader in the chest and in Hermione's opinion, had the much finer physique. It didn't help that Hermione also thought that midnight hair and emerald eyes was a much more dreamier combination than red hair with blue eyes. She would have lost hours just staring at him if it were not for her determination to let her feelings show. 

Hermione shook her head. In terms of keeping her pride, this was not going well. She had been staring at Harry like a lovesick fool for the past five minutes now. She had to stop playing the fool and start trying to find a way to talk her way out of this situation. Sighing, she directed her gaze at Harry's face. 

What she saw in his eyes completely startled her. She did not know what exactly to expect—perhaps confusion or anger. Maybe even a slight lingering trace of lust. She had never thought that she would meet his eyes and see such abject fear in them. 

Harry was afraid. 

Yet again, Hermione's mind was not up to dealing with the realities of this morning. Harry was afraid. What did he have to be scared of? There was nothing here that could hurt him. All of that was in the past. He had nothing to be afraid of here. Why was he afraid? 

Then the answer came to her. He was afraid of her. He was scared to death of what her reaction might be, of what she might do. The poor boy actually thought that she would be angry at him! She was not upset at him. There was no reason for her to be mad at him. Her memory was clear on who had started everything and if anything, he should be upset at her. 

She couldn't let him go on laboring under such a gross misconception, especially not when he was looking at her like that. She sat up, tucking her knees under her and bringing up the blanket to cover her chest. Looking directly into his eyes, she said, "I'm not mad, Harry." 

He blinked childishly at her, as if he could not wrap his mind around the words she had said. "You're not?" he asked. 

She sighed and reached out a hand to him to beckon him closer to her. He moved from his seat at the edge of the bed to sit down right beside her. He was so close to her. Hermione gave in to her desire to touch him and framed his face with both her hands. 

She spoke her next words very slowly, carefully enunciating each syllable as if speaking to a child. "I'm not angry at you. I have no reason to be mad, Harry." 

"But we—that is me and you, we—" Harry turned his face away from her and dropped his eyes from hers as he floundered about for the right words to say. 

Hermione dropped her hands to her side before stating the cold truth for him. "We had sex together." _That's right_, she thought to herself, _keep it clinical_. You didn't sleep together, you had sex together. Besides, saying you slept together was just too romantic—taking advantage of your best friend when he was drunk does not qualify for such a phrase. 

Harry blushed at her blunt word choice. "I wouldn't have put it that way," he said. 

Raising an eyebrow at him, she replied, "Would you have chosen a more coarser phrase then?" 

Harry smiled at that and Hermione could feel her heart doing somersaults at the sight. However, his smile quickly faded away. "But it was wrong. I shouldn't have let it happen." 

"It's not your fault, Harry. If I remember correctly, I kissed you first." Hermione turned red at that confession. 

He shook his head. "That doesn't matter. I should have stopped it. I knew perfectly well that you wanted to wait and yet I wasn't strong enough to stop it." 

She closed her eyes at his words. Was it any wonder that she loved him? Most men would find it hard to resist that kiss she gave him, especially in an inebriated condition. That was no mere peck on the mouth. It had been a full-blown snog with her insistently pressing her body close to his. It still made her hot to think of that kiss and of how eagerly he had responded to her. In her most precious dreams, he always responded to her kisses, as if he could not get enough of them. Last night would have been a dream come true if only she didn't have to face the truth of everything in the morning. 

When she opened her eyes again, she saw him looking at her worriedly. She could tell that he still believed that he was to blame and she didn't know what would convince him otherwise. Nonetheless she had to try. She loved him to well to let him go on feeling so guilty without doing a thing. 

"Harry, you're not to blame. It's not as if you went out purposefully to get me drunk. If anyone is to blame, it's me for starting the whole thing. You say you should have been strong enough to stop it—well I should have been strong enough never to start it. And how could I be angry at you? Look at you—you're putting all the blame on yourself, but you're not running away from anything. You're here with me and I can't tell you how much that means to me." 

***** 

Harry would have bet that Hermione would have exploded at him as soon as she realized what had happened. He would have been ecstatic if she had merely stalked away angrily, with a few words to the effect that they would talk later. 

He was simply speechless at the fact that not only was she not angry at him, but she seemed to think that if anyone was to blame it was herself. He was so grateful that she hadn't said anything along the lines of never wishing to see him again. He didn't think that he would have been able to stand that. He just knew that he would have broken down into tears at those words. 

Harry knew the words he should say now even though he had never spoken to anyone who had been in this situation. Still some things were so obvious that you didn't have to be taught what you should do—you just know what was appropriate. So just about now, he should smile tentatively at her and suggest that it was both their fault. That they should just stop blaming each other and try to put all of this behind them. That no matter what may happen they would always be friends because they had been through too much together to lose that. 

The only problem was that Harry didn't want to say any of that. 

Yes, he valued Hermione's friendship more than anything else. Yes, there was no way he wanted to lose that. But just the same, it was not all right. He didn't want to try to put this out of his mind and act as if nothing had happened. He didn't want to be just friends anymore. 

Harry sighed. It would be so easy to imagine that her last words to him meant more than she intended. _You're here with me and I can't tell you how much that means to me_, she had said. It was so easy to tack on three extra words to that sentence. He didn't even have to try to imagine hearing her say I love you. In his mind, she said it all the time. This was one of the few times in his life that he knew perfectly well what he wanted. 

He wanted her. He didn't want he just like he had her last night, although that had been most pleasant. He wanted her while knowing that she wanted him almost as much as he did her. He wanted her by his side, knowing that he loved her so much. He wanted her always with him, joined in love, together in spirit always even when they were far apart. 

The only way he could get that was if he risked it all and told her how he felt. That was frightening. If he couldn't have her, then he at least wanted her friendship. Harry did not know what he would do without her. He had taken her for granted so long but it was clear to him now just how much he needed her and her faith in him. 

Still he should have at least as much faith in her as she did in him. They had been the closest of friends for the longest time. He should have faith in that friendship and its ability to see anything through. He might now get what he wanted most, but at the very least, they would remain best friends. He would have said the words. It wasn't what he should do but it was what he needed to do. 

He glanced up to see her gazing expectantly at him. It was now or never. He had to give voice to what he had kept hidden in his heart for all too long. 

"I love you."   
  
  
  
  


**Author's note**—This chapter was getting a tad too long so I thought I would stop there. Anyway, I do hope that you liked it. Please leave a review to let me know what you think—whether it's good or bad. Thank you. 

Also thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter— 

**Animagus-Steph**—Thanks so much for leaving the review. Am v. happy to know that you liked the first part.   
**HP/HG Lover**—Absolutely love your nickname. And while I would like to think that Harry has already noticed Hermione, I don't hold out much hope. He wasn't in the best of shape at the end of GoF and also he can be a bit daft at times. Like in his conversation with Vicky about how it doesn't mean a thing that they spend so much time together and that she's always talking about him because they're just friends. Yeah right—as if we believe that. ^_-   
**He-who-must-not-be-named**—The last chapter was not a cliffie. That points to above chapter> was a cliffie. Although I don't think it should count as one if I get the next chapter out within a week.   
**MythX**—Actually, it was never my intention to do a two-chapter story. I always had intended to go significantly beyond that, but if you like I can just stop here. =P   
**Sandeep Patil**—I suppose considering that ff.net has around 34,000 HP fics, it would be inevitable that someone has done the morning after scenario before. *sigh* Oh well. Anyway, it's good to know that you liked this one.   
**Nappa**—Me, write angst? Nevah! =) Seriously, I had never intended for them just to leave the room without saying anything. That would not have been keeping in line with my view of their characters. Besides, as trite and clichéd as this fic already is, I simply refuse to let it to become so bad as to follow the tired old plot line of: H/Hr sleep together, next day both are embarrassed and think that the other is upset, they don't speak for several years during which we see lots of Harry angst, and about twelve years later, while teaching DADA at Hogwarts, Harry runs into a messy-browned hair, green-eyed kid named James Granger. Yeah right! Just gag me with a spoon!   
Err—sorry bout the valley moment there. Got a tad bit carried away there. *sigh* My first version of this fic was almost as bad as the above—let's just say Hermione didn't have sex before marriage and they were in Lost Wages with a rather important slip of paper on the floor. smirk> Although, it's not too late for that considering that neither one of them has looked at the floor yet. 

Finally, a big **THANK YOU** to the following for their reviews:   
**Heaven**, **Seiryuu**, **apostrophe**, **Ryoko Blue**, **shanm**, **Blanche Dubois**,** leogrl**, **Wondergirl**, **Kristin**, **ChrisMiss**, **Max**, **BlazingUnknown**, **May** and **Rain**. 

I'm so sorry for not responding individually, but I want to get this chapter up before I have to go to sleep. Honto ni gomen nasai. But thank you _thank you_ **thank you** for leaving reviews—words cannot express how much I appreciate it.   



	3. An Overdue Development

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part III : An Overdue Development**

This could not be happening. She must have misheard him somehow. It simply could not be happening. The possibility that he said what Hermione thought he had said was just too awful to contemplate. 

However, as Harry continued to stare at her after he made his confession, the logical part of her mind finally started to take over. This was happening. He had said those words. There was no way they could be taken back. Those words would continue to hang over them no matter what she did to try and fix the situation. 

Hermione looked down at the floor and inwardly suppressed her urge to have a good cry. Why did Harry have to say that? Why didn't he think before he opened his mouth? Hermione supposed that was being a little unfair to him. He probably did think before he claimed that he loved her. He probably thought that would be the right thing to do in this situation. He probably thought that saying those words would make her happy. 

Only she did not want to hear that from him. She had never wanted to hear him say those words out of some feeling of obligation. She did not want to hear him say "I love you" merely because he thought it was the right thing to say. That was no way to start a relationship. A relationship should be founded on mutual love and respect for each other and not on some duty that one person felt. Harry may have thought that he was doing the right thing for this situation, but Hermione wished greatly that he had chosen to be honest. She wished that he had said what he felt rather than what he thought he should feel. 

She closed her eyes and drew in a steadying breath. Harry had done what he thought was the right thing and now it was time for her to do what she knew was right. She couldn't take advantage of those words. She knew those words were not true. If Harry loved her—and her heart leapt at even the thought of that—she would have been able to tell before this. You didn't need someone to tell you "I love you" in order to know that you are loved. Love transcended mere words. It was real no matter what you said or did. On the other hand, if it was not there, then it would never be there, no matter how many times you professed your love. Some things were just true and there was no way you could fight the truth, no matter how much you might want to. So Hermione had to be strong and tell Harry that he didn't have to say such things for her. No matter how much she might wish that he had actually meant those words, it wouldn't be true. It wouldn't be fair to trap him in a relationship that he didn't really want. Hermione would have given almost anything to be his beloved. Since she couldn't have that, the least she could do was be the best possible friend to him. 

Still it hurt to think that she would be telling him no. She had dreamed so often of him actually loving her that to hear him say that was a very cruel joke. Hermione thought that she had dealt with enough heartache already without having to bear the burden of telling him no. Yet somehow she would manage to make it through and survive this disaster. Her heart would be a bit more injured but in the end, her refusal would be best for both of them. 

With that in mind, Hermione drew in one last breath. After a short pause to gather her courage, she raised her head and looked Harry directly in the eye. 

That's when it hit her. 

He hadn't been lying. He had been telling the truth. He loved her. 

It was incredible. He loved her. She knew it was true. She had been closely attuned to his thoughts and feelings for such a long time now but somehow she had missed this development. _He loved her. _It was incredible. She could see it sitting there, staring back at her from those gorgeous green eyes of his. It was just there, right before her, like a gift freely given, waiting for her touch. Just exactly how it should be. 

It had been too much to hope for but it was still there. Her dream had come true. The fairy tale had come to life. _I wish I may, I wish I might, have the first wish I make tonight. _ Finally she had the wish that she had made over and over again for so many nights. 

Hermione couldn't believe it. Her mind simply could not grasp the fact that he loved her while her heart was almost leaping out of her chest in excitement. She knew that she must have looked the sight, just gawking at Harry like that. She didn't care. It didn't matter. 

He loved her. That made everything right in her world. 

***** 

It was not going well. It was not going well by any possible standard you could think of. Hermione had just been gawking at him since he had made his confession. He could see the disbelief in her eyes. She didn't have to say a thing. Her silence spoke all too loudly. 

She didn't love him. 

Harry knew that if he was asked later, he would reply that he was glad he had told Hermione that he loved her. At least now he was certain of how she felt. At least now he wouldn't have his weak moments when he thought there was a chance that she could return his love. He would say those words and say that he had no regrets. To some extent, that would be true. 

It still hurt like hell. 

Knowing she didn't love him hurt. Harry thought that it was painful to watch her during breakfast that day in their seventh year and detect no hint that she felt the way he did. It was painful but it was nothing compared to this. Harry wanted to run from the room so he wouldn't have to face the inevitable. He did not want her to tell him what he could see in front of him. He didn't want her to say that she didn't feel the same. 

Harry could not do that though. No matter how much he wanted to run away, he had to stay here. Just because things did not turn out the way he had wanted did not give him an excuse to act like a child. Children could flee from their fears; you lost that luxury when you became an adult. He had to take responsibility for what he had said. Harry didn't feel guilty about actually loving Hermione—if anything, he wondered how anyone could not. Yet he loved her too well to let her feel badly about not loving him back. Her friendship was more than he could ask for. That would be enough for him to survive on. She did not love him so he had to let her go despite the fact that he did not want to. 

She had yet to speak. It would be up to him to say something. Harry thought that it was best to tell her the truth—or at least some portion of it. Nevertheless it was hard to open his mouth to say the words. So long as he had not actually said anything, he could hang on to the small hope that she was just in shock. 

The tears now forming in her eyes wouldn't let him do that though. 

"Hermione, don't worry about what I just said," he started. "I—" 

"You meant it," she breathed. 

Harry winced. Yes he did mean it. He would have meant it even if he had never said the words. "Yes, but you don't have to—" 

"You love me." 

He did love her. He loved enough to let her go but he wished that she would make this easier for him. Harry loved the sound of Hermione's voice but right now he wished that she would just stop talking. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so perhaps it would also be over as painlessly as possible. 

"You love me," she repeated, as if she could not believe it. Then she started moving towards him, with love lighting up her eyes. 

That's when it hit him. She loved him. She wasn't crying out of guilt or shame. She was crying from relief and joy. She loved him. Then he lost all conscious thought as her lips met his. 

It was stunning. It far exceeded the passion of last night. Her kiss overwhelmed him. He could feel her love and want and need for him. It was absolutely incredible. 

He pushed her back flat on to the bed before plunging his tongue into her mouth. His excitement increased as she matched him as he deepened their kiss. Her hands briefly ran up and down his back, tracing the muscles there, before she gripped his shoulders to pull him closer. Silently he agreed. They weren't close enough. They had to get closer. They could never be close enough but he had to have more of her. Harry's lips left Hermione's mouth to plant kisses all over her face and neck. She wrapped one leg around him and that was the only sign he needed. 

***** 

Some time later, Harry was content to lay in bed. He was happy just to be watching the woman he loved while his heart rate returned to normal after the morning's exertions. Feeling his eyes upon her, Hermione turned to him and snuggled into his chest. She placed a single kiss on it before looking up to meet his eyes. 

"I'm sorry," she said. "I never told you, did I?" 

He gently kissed her forehead. "You don't have to. I know." 

"I want to tell you. I love you. I've loved you since—" 

Harry silenced her with yet another kiss. "Don't. Let's not speak of it right now. For now, let's just be." 

She smiled at him before answering. 

"We'll always be."   
  
  
  


**Author's note**—That's another chapter that's completed although I'm not finished with the story yet. I would really like to know what you think of this one so please please leave a review. Thank you! 

And a great big thanks goes out to **Nappa**, **VenusDeMilo**, **HarryNZ**, **rokjai**, **Lady Slytherin**, **Carter Girl**,** lifeoca**, **H/H fan**, **invisibleink**, **He-who-must-not-be-named**, **Hazelmist**, **holly**, **Em**, **leogrl**, **HarryandGinny4eva**, **BabyPopstar**, **Max**, **Spitfire360**, **draco's princess**, **lilhu**, **Heaven**, **ChrisMiss**, **Lady Lylia** and **Eric** for their reviews. I really do appreciate your reviews, each and every one of them. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you thought. I wish I had more time to respond, but unfortunately it's finals week. Thank you again and again!   



	4. A Blissful Day

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer: **I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part IV : A Blissful Day**

Harry mulled over yesterday's events while making the morning coffee. It was still unbelievable. Hermione loved him. What more could he ask for? 

He knew that Hermione was similarly amazed. Her astonishment was all too visible in her eyes. It was incredible to think that they had loved each other for so long and in the space of a single day, they finally managed to patch things together. The events of yesterday continued to bring a smile to his face—and most likely would for quite some time. 

They had spent the entire day indoors yesterday. Harry and Hermione had eventually found the willpower to leave the bed, but neither one of them had wanted to leave the apartment. Both had been content to simply bask in each other's company. Harry had enjoyed just lounging around, taking in fully the fact that she loved him. It had been complete bliss to spend the day alone with her in languid pleasure. 

Staying in today, however, was not an option. As the typical bachelor, Harry's stockpile of food was not at all what you would call impressive. It had consisted entirely of leftover Chinese, some bread and a few containers of yogurt. While Hermione had not been able to take issue with it yesterday, as her attention was occupied elsewhere, earlier this morning she had clearly registered her dismay over the contents of his kitchen. Harry had to agree with her assessment—after the way they raided his kitchen yesterday, it was now practically empty. There was nothing to do except go out and shop for more. At first, he had been disappointed at the prospect—he would have loved to have spent another day alone with Hermione by his side. Yet, he soon became accepting of the plan. They would go out, see a Muggle movie and stroll around the river before shopping for food and returning home. 

That plan had a charm of its own. 

The coffee being finished, Harry returned to the dining room with two full mugs. It was a good thing that both he and Hermione liked their coffee black, considering that there was no milk to be had. As he entered the room, he instinctively looked over at where Hermione was sitting. 

She was sitting at his table, reading the morning paper, clad only in one of his shirts. For some reason, she had left the top buttons undone and the swell of her breasts was completely noticeable from where he stood. He suppressed a groan. He had thought about Hermione in that way long before they ever got together, but those thoughts had been relatively easy to repress. However, his lustful thoughts had multiplied, again and again, especially with the memories he now had to fuel them. The sight of her was enough to make him want to forget all their plans in lieu of more immediate physical activity. 

That thought did make him groan. 

Hermione looked up at that. Seeing him standing still in the doorway, she asked, "Are you going to stand there all day or can I convince you to hand over the caffeine?" Not waiting for a response, she put down her paper and got up. Hermione strolled over to him. With a quick peck on the cheek, she removed the two mugs of coffee from his hands and placed them at the appropriate table settings. 

That kiss had spurred Harry to move again. After Hermione had finished putting the coffee down, he audaciously embraced her from behind. Whispering in her ear, he said, "Why don't we forget all about those plans to go out? I've all I want for breakfast right here." 

"I doubt that is the truth. Really, Harry, how long has it been since you last bought any groceries?" Hermione was nothing if not stubborn but she couldn't fool him. He could feel her reaction at that statement. She wasn't as opposed to his suggestion as she would have him think. 

He brushed her long hair to one side and began laying soft kisses about her neck. "I meant every word I said, love," he mumbled between kisses. He felt her excitement growing and he tightened his hands around her waist. 

"I was going to say that I should go back to my place and change into something more appropriate." 

"I think what you're wearing is entirely appropriate." 

"For indoors, maybe. I don't think you'd say the same if I went outside looking like this." He slipped his hand inside her shirt and slowly began tracing the curves of her right breast. 

She gasped at that but persisted. "And we will be going out today, won't we?" 

"Later perhaps." He gently ran his hand across the hardening nipple of her breast and slowly ground his hips against hers. She moaned in response. Removing his hand from her waist, he tilted her head so he could look into her eyes. "Methinks the lady doth protest too much," he said before thoroughly exploring the depths of her mouth. 

At that, Hermione gave up trying to speak and turned around. She hooked her arms around his neck and eagerly returned his kiss, with her tongue playfully engaging his. He moved his hands down to press her closer to him. She groaned in response. Harry inwardly smiled. 

It looked like he would get his choice of breakfast after all. 

***** 

Hermione sighed as she looked out over the river, gripping Harry's hand tightly in hers as they sat together on a bench. They had never made it to the movie. Not only had they missed the start time, but once they had recovered from their previous activities, Harry had insisted on going out to eat. He was absolutely starving, he had claimed. After waiting quite impatiently for her to change at her place, he had whisked her away to a local restaurant and had begun putting incredible amounts of food away. 

That had been embarrassing, not so much from the fact that he was eating so much but from what it implied. Hermione knew that if her strange gait didn't tip off the people around them, then Harry's appetite most definitely did. She wasn't embarrassed at the thought that the world knew that she and Harry was together. If anything, she was more inclined to shout that fact from the rooftops rather than deny it. But it made her blush to think that other people knew that she and Harry had been engaged in some very private activities earlier. She supposed people would have been able to figure it out anyway, but she felt that they were being blatant about it. 

Hermione sighed again. Harry's hand left hers and encircled her waist. He brought her up close against his side and she snuggled her head against his shoulder. After a minute or two, he asked, "What's wrong?" 

"Nothing's wrong," she protested absently. 

Harry sighed at that and kissed the top of her head. "I'd rather you tell me what's wrong instead of denying it, love." 

She closed her eyes. She knew he was speaking the truth. He wanted to know what was troubling her yet it wasn't anything that was easy to say. It was hard to put her feelings into words and she was scared that he would take it the wrong way. It would be very easy for him to misinterpret her. She took a deep breath. Hermione knew she should tell him. She knew that she should trust him as he had always been willing to listen to what she had to say. If he took things the wrong way, then he should give her enough time to set him straight. At least, that's what she hoped. 

Still, it was difficult to find the right words. She decided ultimately to be as blunt about it as she could. "We weren't careful at all." 

Those words left him puzzled. Hermione could feel his frown forming, as his muscles tensed up around her. She thought that she would have to spell things out for him even more when he finally understood her meaning. 

"You're worried that you might be— " 

"Yes," she finished for him as he seemed too flustered to say the actual word. 

At that, he tensed up even more. Harry fumbled about for words before finally getting out a half-audible "I'm sorry." 

Hermione lifted her head up to place a kiss on his lips. "Don't be. And please don't cry. I didn't mean to— " 

"I know you're going to say that you don't blame me. Still I should have known better. I knew the charms to use but I was just too caught up to cast the spell. There's no excuse for that. I should have been more careful." 

Hermione did not know what to say. She couldn't lie and say that she was happy at the possibility. She didn't want to have a child yet, even with Harry. She was only twenty. Maybe in a few years, it would be all right but as for right now, there were just too many other things that she wanted to do with her life. She just was not ready for all that yet. However, even though she was hoping with all her might that she wasn't pregnant, she still didn't regret the events of the last couple of days. She and Harry were finally together. That meant so much to her. 

Finally, she decided to talk instead of letting silence stew between them. "I don't regret anything we did, Harry. I mean, I now have you. How could I regret that? I don't want to be pregnant but that's out of our hands now. I know that it's unlikely for that to happen right away but I can't help but worry. It's just that the thought of it is sort of overwhelming. I'm not ready for that yet." 

"I'm sorry," he said again. Hermione was about to protest his apology but remained silent at his look. "I know you don't want to hear that and you don't want me to feel that, but I am. I am sorry that you have to worry so." 

Hermione sighed. She had not wanted to make him feel so guilty. She had only spoken because he had asked her to, but it seemed like she only managed to make him feel bad. There had to be something she could do to make him feel better. 

"If I had to chose to do it over again, I would. Because I love you. Because knowing that you love me is worth taking that risk. Because I had hoped someday anyway to start a family with you and even though it's too early, I think it's better early than never. I love you and I will love you no matter what happens." With those words, she kissed him, willing him to feel her love and her joy at simply being with him. By some miracle, he felt it. She could tell by his response. She couldn't make everything better. She couldn't make her worried disappear with a wave of her wand. However, she could at least let him know how much she loved him. 

Harry was smiling once again when the kissed ended. He cupped her face in his hands and bent down so his forehead was touching hers. "I love you. You don't know how much I love you. While I hope someday we will have children together, I hope and pray that it won't be until you're ready. Until we're both ready for that. But if we don't have a choice, I want you to know that I'll be with you every step of the way. I'll never leave you, unless you want me to. And I'm sorry for not being more careful before—there's nothing I can do now, except promise that I will be careful in the future. And that's a promise that I will keep." 

Hermione felt tears forming in her eyes at his words. She loved him so much. It was absolute ecstasy to know that he loved her as well. She did not know what was in store for them in the future but she did know that they could make it so long as they were together. 

Harry wiped away the tears tracking down her cheeks. "Don't do that," he said. "I don't want to see you cry ever." 

She quickly embraced him roughly, with her head burrowed against his chest. "I love you," she whispered. 

Without even pausing to think, he returned her embrace. "I love you," he said. "Always and forever, I'll love you." 

The couple stayed liked that for some time, content to take comfort in the presence of each other's love.   
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's note**—Oh dear, that was a fluffy chapter. Can anyone tell that I'm stressed over finals? *sigh* Hopefully, I'll be able to make up for that in the next chapter. I would really love to know what you think of this story, good or bad, so please leave a review. Thank you. 

And just a couple comments on previous reviews:   
**Imran **(aka the fanfic writer formerly known as **Nappa**)—I don't know how you manage to be the first review all these times. But thanks for your compliments, even though I sometimes wonder if you're going over the top a tad too much. It's nice to know that someone likes this piece.   
**Leeva**—Thank you so much for leaving a review. While long reviews are nice, I'd much rather have a short review than none at all. Doumo arigatou!   
**Amy**—Err, you do realize that Hermione being pregnant would cause a lot of angst, right? I mean, most girls don't dream of being pregnant at 20 and Hermione's definitely one of them. Thanks so much for the comment.   
**ChrisMiss**—Yup, they were definitely playing the role of fools in love in the last chapter. I'm glad to know that you liked it.   
**Heaven**—It's good to know that someone was fooled by the first half of the chapter. Honestly, I thought I was being terribly obvious, considering that I've never kept my shipping preferences secret. Thanks you so much for letting me know what you thought.   
**Lady Wolfsbane**—You definitely get the prize for the most creative review. Unfortunately, I'm a poor student so all the prize is only a great big Thank You!   
**Ryoko Blue**—Thanks so much for the compliments. I'm happy to know that you're enjoying this fic.   
**May**—Quite honestly, I can understand where someone would be coming from by making them not talk for a while. However, I like to think that after ten years or so of the closest of friendships, that there's enough trust between Harry and Hermione for them to get everything out. I don't know how likely that is, but that's the way I like to see it.   
**Sage**—Yes, they did get together a little fast. I put it up to both of them waiting for so long without saying a thing—finally when everything was out between them, they didn't want to wait any longer. However, the speed will cause them problems with the future.   
**Seiryuu**—Yes, I know. It's the whole "the eyes are the windows to the soul" cliché (although I almost typed that the wrong way). *sigh* I will never, ever attempt to count up the number of clichés used in this fic as I suspect that would only depress me. This fic is strictly for fun, not for form. 

Also thanks to: **The Magician**, **lilhu**,** PureBloodGryffindor**, **VenusDeMilo**, **leogrl**, **Shits and Giggles**, **aaliyah-potter**, **GeminiGirlz**, **Eric**, **Em**, **Voldemort jr**., **apostrophe**, **hazeleyez**, **Vixen**, **Evil*Fairy**, **Noodlejelly**, **Emili Potter** and **Masqu erade** for their reviews. I'm sorry for not responding personally—I'm running out of things to say without being repetitive. But I want to let you know that I do appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. Thank you so much!   



	5. An Unwanted Storm

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part V : An Unwanted Storm**

Hermione usually didn't wake up with a smile on her face on Mondays. Certainly she could not remember the last time she had greeted the start of the workweek with a large goofy grin covering her face. 

Of course there was never a time when she had woken up to the knowledge that Harry loved her before. That could account for the difference in how she felt. 

The rest of the day Sunday had been wonderful. Hermione had been able to put her fears aside for the present. She wouldn't be able to find out one way or the other for a couple weeks and there was nothing that she wanted to do about it right now. It was best to take advantage of the rest of the time that she and Harry had alone for the weekend, as they didn't know how much time they would be able to spend together during the week. She might have to work late hours at her job and Harry was never sure what sort of Quidditch practice schedule Wood would concoct. All they knew for sure was their weekends would be booked for the foreseeable future—they would be together then at least. 

Harry and Hermione had gone shopping for groceries soon after their talk. It was the most fun Hermione had ever had while doing such a mundane task. There was just something about being together with Harry. Hermione relished just being with him—being able to holds with him as a lover instead of only a friend was a joy she never expected to treasure. She loved being with him. She loved holding his hand and she most definitely loved their more intimate moments as well. 

The worst part of the day was when she had to leave. While Hermione would have liked to spend the night at his place yet again, it just wasn't practical. She had to get to work on time and that would be impractical. Even if Harry did not distract her from leaving in a timely manner, she would have had to stop by her place to change. There was no hope for it but to say good-bye for the night. She had promised before she left that she would stop by the next night. That would have to be enough to get them through the day alone. 

That thought had started off her day with a smile. Unfortunately, by ten o'clock that smile had long been a memory for Mondays meant paperwork. 

After graduating from Hogwarts, Hermione had quickly found a job in charms research. That was no surprise. She had gotten outstanding scores in Charms throughout her school career. She was just fascinated with the idea of taking the theories behind old charms to make something new. So when she was offered a research position, she had snapped it up. 

However, the good always came with the bad and the job came with paperwork. You had to keep track of every single change you made during a project, even if it was something as minor as shortening or lengthening a single syllable in the incantation. Hermione thought this made sense as the slightest difference in a spell could drastically change the results. 

What didn't make sense were all the records you had to keep. Every single change in your research had to be appropriately documented—from the background research stating the expected results to the formal approval of the substitution to the experimental results to the write-up at the end comparing the experimental results to the predicted ones along with a theoretical explanation for any difference between the two. Writing all of that down was exhausting but it wasn't the end. One also had to fill out all of the Ministry of Magic forms that were required, in triplicate no less. Each form had to be filled out and filed at the appropriate time. If she missed a filing period, the Committee on Experimental Charms would fine both her and her employer. 

At least Hermione worked in the section on Protective Charms rather than Medical Charms. She had heard horror story after horror story about the hoops they had to jump through to get even preliminary approval of an experiment. The Medical Charm Section was open in its hostility towards the Committee—dartboards featuring the more obnoxious Committee members were commonplace. 

So it was despite the lovely dream of a weekend that she had spent with Harry, Hermione had developed a rather painful headache by mid-morning. 

Unfortunately for her, her day would only get worse. Lunch would not be the reprieve she expected it to be. 

Hermione felt every eye upon her as she entered the employee cafeteria. It was unnerving, like being in the eye of a storm. You could feel the storm surrounding you but you didn't know when it would hit. 

She didn't have long to wait at all. As soon as she sat down with her salad, Isabella Steele made her presence known. 

"Hello Hermione." Isabella's casual greeting didn't not fool Hermione for a second. She knew that Isabella had something up her sleeve—she was a scheming social climber if Hermione had ever heard one. 

It wasn't an excuse for being rude though. "Good afternoon, Isabella. How was your weekend?" 

"It was fine, I suppose. Though not as good as yours was, I hear." 

Hermione almost choked. That was the last thing she had expected to hear. She didn't frequent the same places as Isabella. Her co-worker preferred to go to the most popular clubs in London, either Wizarding or Muggle. Hermione liked spending time with friends in less crowded places. There was no way that Isabella could have seen her and Harry together. How could she know? 

Hermione wasn't going to give Isabella the pleasure of hearing such a question. "I wasn't aware that you were so interested in my social life." 

"Of course not," Isabella smirked. "Who would be? I'm not very interested in either your non-existent social life or love life—except your love life isn't so non-existent anymore, now is it?" 

Hermione glared. "I have no concept about what you are saying." 

"That would make for a rather boring relationship, wouldn't it? Do me a favor, dear, and introduce me before he dumps you out of sheer boredom." With that, Isabella left but not without leaving Hermione a little present. 

It was a copy of today's Daily Prophet. With the front page being covered with the delicious snog she had given Harry in the Muggle bar that they had been in. 

All of a sudden, Hermione wanted the day to be over right now. She didn't want to handle this alone. She had to talk to Harry. 

***** 

Mondays were always tiring. After a weekend spent relaxing, Harry felt a bit out of shape when facing a Wood practice for the first time of the week. He was so glad to finally be home after a day spent being smashed about by bludgers left and right. Practice had been exhausting as usual. Wood was fanatical about Quidditch—his practices were already infamous in the league for being horribly long and notoriously secret. 

The fact that Hermione was coming over to see him just made it even better. 

That had been his mantra to get through the day. He would see her again tonight. Everything would be perfect again with her tonight. Harry marveled how so much had changed in the space of a single weekend. Last week, he had been trying to ignore the pain that came with thinking that she would never love him the way he wanted her to. Today he hardly kept himself from singing with joy that she loved him. 

He couldn't wait until she got home. 

He knew that technically his apartment wasn't her home yet. Harry didn't think that either one of them were ready to move in with the other. Still when he thought of her coming to his place, he thought of it as her coming home—because their home was so clearly with each other. Even if they were not about to make that step yet, their hearts were always together. 

The knocking at the door roused Harry from his reverie. Harry stood up and made his way to open the door. He had to get her a key. There was no reason not to give her one as he completely trusted her. Besides she wouldn't have to wait for him to open the door and by the sounds of the knocking growing more insistent, she had been waiting for quite some time. 

He opened the door and there she was. 

When Hermione saw him, she immediately leapt into his arms, hugging him tight. It was just the greeting he had hoped for but something was not right. Something was on her mind. 

"Bad day at work?" he asked. 

"Oh Harry, it was so awful!" 

"It was?" 

"It was dreadful. I didn't find out till lunchtime but once I had heard, I just wanted to come to you. I wished I could have gotten here sooner." 

Harry was officially confused. What had she heard? Seeing no reason not to ask her that question, he did so. 

"What exactly did you hear?" 

Startled at that response, she looked up at him. "You don't know." 

"I don't have a clue, love. Care to enlighten me?" 

She sighed. "I hate to be the one to tell you. I don't want you to think that I'm upset at you or that I regret anything we did. I love you. Always believe that." 

"I always will." Harry pulled her into a deep, delicious kiss, their first of the day. It had been too long since they last shared the same air. They broke apart only at the sound of loud coughing behind them. Thinking it was a neighbor who just happened to be walking by, Harry looked up to apologize. 

Ron Weasley stood at the door, with his face redder than his hair and steam literally rising from his head.   
  
  
  
  


**Author's note**—Not much really happened in this chapter but there'll be more next time I promise. I might actually put this chapter through another edit after I'm finish with finals. So please—let me know any comments you have about this one. I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review. 

_Thank you _to everyone who left a review for the last chapter. Just a comment on a few of them—   
**Jade**—So nice to see you here. I'm glad you left me a review, regardless of whether it was your first one or not.   
**Celeste**—If by birth control, you meant contraception spells, well I thought I made it clear that they were going to do that. If you meant something like a morning after pill, I didn't put that in because from what I understand about how it works (and I've had to get this explained to me by one of my friends with a bio degree), I don't think Hermione would go for something like that.   
**Nappa**—I knew about the author's alert but just looking at probability, it seems pretty amazing that you're usually one of the first reviewers for anything I put up. Are you online all hours of the day or what?   
**scout17**—Of course Hermione was going to be worried about pregnancy. It's what any smart girl would do and I think she's rather intelligent myself. I just didn't put it in there right away since I thought her first reaction would be, "I slept with my best friend?" rather than " I might be pregnant!?!" Of course this is much better than sleeping with someone you don't know where you have to worry about the "WTF! Does he have an STD/VD?" as well. On that note, there is _no way _I'm writing a conversation about the two on STDs—I'm going to assume that Hermione trusts Harry to be careful about that or that it occurs off-screen, so to speak.   
**Animagus-Steph**—Nope, it's not the end. I don't have a set end for this fic—it'll end whenever I get tired of writing it. It's just something to do during finals instead of the obsessive cleaning that usually occurs.   
**ChrisMiss**—Finals are awful. Good luck on yours! 

**Thanks **also to **_Seiryuu_**, **_AmyDaFrEaK_**, **_Arwen Potter_**, **_Yzoh Esereth_**, **_HarryNZ_**, **_makulit_**,_ **leogrl**_, **_AznGolDragonGod_**, **_Heaven_**, **_Eric_**, **_KMH_**, **_aaliyah-potter_**,**_ HarryandGinny4eva_** and **_Emili Potter_** for their reviews! I really do like to hear what you think of this fic!   



	6. A Forlorn Anger

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part VI : A Forlorn Anger**

Somehow Hermione didn't think that Ron was happy to catch them in mid-snog. In fact, given the look of anger on his face, it was a good bet that they were in for a set of fireworks that none of them would soon forget. 

The worst part of the situation was that she had expected Ron to be behind them one hundred percent. He had said that he didn't have any feelings for her anymore. It hurt Hermione to think that he had been lying but she could understand why Ron would hide them if he knew she didn't return them. Hadn't that been what she had been doing all these years with Harry? She would be a complete hypocrite for taking him to task for doing the same. 

Yet she couldn't help feeling betrayed in some significant manner. She and Ron would never have worked out. While there were times when they were together that were fun, there were so many more times that were just filled to the brim with hurtful words and angry gestures. They were too _different _for their relationship to work. Their common ground was too sparse for them to make it. It had gotten to the point where it wasn't fun spending time with Ron, even though he was her supposed boyfriend. She had looked upon it as a horrendous chore that she just wasn't interested in doing. 

She thought that he had understood that. 

**** 

_Five fights. Three days. Five fights in only three days and it was simply driving Hermione mad.___

_They said that the best part about fighting was making up. The way things were now, Hermione didn't see anything good about the firsts they had. The last time the only reason why she had made up with Ron was to preserve their friendship. Except for that, she would have let it end happily. She had lost her courage though at the last minute and had accepted his apology with one of her own. As always, they kissed and snuggled after the apologies but Hermione didn't feel any warmth in those kisses.___

_It had to end. There was nothing else to do. This was their fifth fight in three days. They were deadlocked in a downward spiral that just had to end. Hermione knew that ending it would hurt them both. They had tried so hard to make things work. However, neither one of them were happy being with each other. It was better to end things now rather than waste more time in a relationship that neither she nor Ron wanted.___

_All she had to do now was tell him. She had to find the strength to say the things that needed to be said, no matter what the cost. She didn't want their friendship to end but if that was the price she had to pay, she would do it. That sounded awful but Hermione could not continue on with this charade of a relationship any longer.___

_Ron stood there waiting in front of her, having uttered a heartfelt apology. I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry about what I said about you, I didn't mean it, he had said. Ron meant every word of that apology. He was sorry to have hurt her. He was asking for her forgiveness and another chance but of the two, he would only get the first.___

_She had to respond to him. He had been waiting for several minutes as she had been pondering what was best to do. Not having any wish to draw things out longer than they had to be, she used the simplest word she knew. "I'm tired, Ron."___

_Ron sighed. "I know you've had a long day, Hermione. But we've got to talk about this. We can't just let this go on festering between us. It would eat us up from the inside. You know I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't think before I speak but that doesn't mean I love you any less."___

_Hermione closed her eyes. Did he love her? She doubted that. If he did, she hated to think it but it wasn't the love she was looking for. She wanted a love that would understand her and accept her for who she was, not one that would seek to mold her into someone she was not.___

_"I meant I'm tired of working things out. I'm tired of this relationship. It's not fun even being with you anymore. All we ever do is fight."___

_Ron looked at her with unreadable eyes. Hermione had no clue what could possibly be running through his mind. A second later, he replied, "No, it's not fun anymore, is it?" He sat down across from her at the table. "At times I wonder why we even bother when we know that it'll just all start up again."___

_Thank goodness he seemed to understand. "It's not that I don't care for you, Ron. I do and I want the best for you. But I'm not it. We don't love each other the way that we should. All we do is fight. I know the people who don't know us well think that we argue just like an old married couple. But it's not the same. We drive other people away when we fight. That's not love—love should welcome people in. We don't argue like a couple whose been happily married for years. We argue like a couple whose marriage is on the brink."___

_"I would say that's because our relationship is on the brink." Ron cast his eyes on the ground before them. "Is this it then?"___

_"This is it." Hermione walked over to pull him into one last hug. "I hope you'll always be my friend, Ron. But I can't be with you any longer. We've tried again and again to patch things over and we've just got to accept that there are times when things don't work out the way you want them to."___

_He limply remained in her embrace, not raising his eyes to meet hers. "If that's it, then it's over. I wish I could say it was fun while it lasted but—"___

_"That wouldn't be true."_

**** 

It had been awkward for some time afterwards but summer came and the distance helped to mend their friendship. The rise of Voldemort had ironically helped to heal their friendship, as they couldn't avoid each other in the efforts that everyone was taking to counteract the Death Eaters' poisonous acts. Eventually, they began to spend time together again as friends. Gradually, the awkwardness and discomfort faded away leaving their friendship tested, but not broken. 

Looking back, Hermione reflected that breaking up with Ron had been frighteningly easy to do. Like her, he had been to tired of the relationship to put up much of a fight for why they should stay together. That was what she had thought but looking at Ron's current anger made her wonder. 

They stood frozen in that tableau for a few minutes longer, with Ron sending death glares at both Harry and Hermione. Then Ron walked in to Harry's apartment. Turning around, he closed the door and drew a deep breath. He faced them and Hermione could see the explosion that was about to occur. 

"It's nice to know that ten years of friendship means so much to you. Were you planning on eventually letting poor old Ron know about this or were you going to hide this behind my back forever?" 

Hermione could feel Harry stiffen at Ron's words. "We had no plans whatsoever to hide this from you," he said. 

"Obviously not considering how blatantly you acted!" Ron threw a copy of that damned Daily Prophet at Harry's feet. "Indecent behavior in Muggle bars, long walks and snogs along the river, I'm only surprised that this didn't all come out sooner!" 

Taking in the picture on the front of the paper in a single quick glance, Harry's face drained of all color before turning red with rising anger. "How the hell did they manage to get a picture of that!" 

"Simple probability, Harry." Ron sneered at them. "If you two go around acting like horny teenagers in lust, eventually someone is going to snap a picture of you. So mind telling me how long you've been going behind my back?" 

That was going too far. Hermione was not going to let Ron get away with saying that nor was she going to let Harry take the brunt of Ron's anger. "How dare you say that?" she coldly remarked. "What we do in our own personal time is none of your business. We would have told you in our own time but we didn't get that choice." 

"Would that have been before or after the wedding?" Sarcasm was Ron's perennial forte. 

"I don't see how you're entitled to know who I'm dating the moment I kiss them." 

"This is rich!" Ron started pacing around, punctuating his words with gestures in the air. "You're actually going to pretend that you just got together. You can't fool me—I've seen the way you two look at each other." He stopped his pacing to glower at them. "If ten years meant anything to you, you could at least not have the decency to lie. I thought you would have the decency to let your best friend know about your happiness but I guess I overestimated you both." 

Stranding up straight, Harry replied, "For your information, we did just get together." 

"Liar." Hermione was shocked to see tears forming in Ron's eyes. "Did you know I continued to believe in you even after I saw that awful picture. I thought to myself, Ron, don't get mad, it's probably been altered. The Daily Prophet is always looking for a way to sell a few more copies, whether they tell the truth or not. So I show up here to let Harry know because he's always the last to know what the current gossip is and I thought he should know because it's about him. Only he's not the last to know. It's me. Because my best _friends _didn't care enough just to say, oh by the way, we're dating. Because evidently I don't mean that much to them." Ron turned around again and with slow, heavy steps, he walked towards the door. "That's fine though. I get the picture. I know where I'm not wanted. I'm just sorry I ever believed in you two." 

With those words, Ron slammed his way out. 

**** 

Things change. Nothing ever stayed the same. There were no constants in life and you just had to accept that. 

It hurt to think that Harry and Hermione didn't want to be friends anymore. It hurt more to think that they didn't bother telling him that fact. Ron could just picture them together, laughing at stupid Ron Weasley who didn't have a friend. 

He didn't mind Harry and Hermione being together. He had expected that to happen a long time ago. It was obvious to him who knew both of them so well that they were besotted with each other. Perhaps they could disguise their feelings from the rest of the world and from each other, but they couldn't fool him. 

Ron couldn't have ignored their feelings for each other. Even though Harry and Hermione had not been together, there were times that Ron felt left out of their friendship. His friends were not purposefully excluding him but they were so _concentrated _on each other that he might as well have not been there. It was frightening how both of them could shut out the world to focus on the other. 

Only now Ron didn't think that they were doing it accidentally. He didn't know how long they had been together as they would not give him an honest answer. It hurt to think that they didn't want him around anymore. That it was enough for Harry and Hermione to have each other and so they had no longer had any use for Ron. 

It was one thing to feel left out amongst your friends. It was another thing entirely to be kicked out of a friendship that you had for most of your life. 

There was nothing Ron could do about it however. If they no longer wanted to be friends, then that was it. He wasn't going to bother them anymore. He didn't know how he would do it but he would make it on his own.   
  
  


**Author's note**—You know something has become too much of a cliché in fanfics when that's the conclusion that everyone leaps to at once. Congrats to Nappa, the only person who figured out why Ron was mad. *sigh* Seriously, I don't think anyone would be too happy about finding out that your best friends are dating from a paper rather than from your friends themselves It certainly would make me feel unwanted and left out. I'm not trying to demonize Ron here but he's always been the most human of the Trio so he's going to act what I think the average person would act like. And right now, the poor boy is hurting inside. In any case, please leave a review to let me know what you think. I would desperately like to know your reaction to this chapter. 

Anyway, just a couple comments on remarks that were left:   
**Nappa**—Like I said, congrats on figuring it out when no one else did. What can I say—you get the know-it-all award for the week. ^_^   
**Korine**—Thanks for the review! And I have to agree, H/H doing mundane things together is just so adorable.   
**Animagus-Steph**—The one thing I do NOT regret about not having lab classes anymore are those stupid lab practicals. Gaahhhh! I still remember how badly my organic chem. practical went. I was just lucky that nothing caught on fire. Anyway, I hope your test went well.   
**Brian**—Hey, remember what I said about counting those clichés? Perhaps I should make a drinking game for this fic and H/Hr fanfics in general. Like one sip every time Ron gets upset when he learns about H/Hr, one sip whenever their relationship is reported in the Daily Prophet, CHUG if they announce it in front of everyone in the Great Hall, etc. But that newspaper does seem the best way to spread rumors when you need rumors to be spread and the Trio's not at Hogwarts anymore. And if they are at Hogwarts, then just give the juicy info to Lavender and Parvati and they'll spread the gossip for ya. ^_^   
**HarryNZ**—Quite frankly, I don't see what was so evil about that cliffhanger. I'll have you know that I was very tempted to go write a D/Hr fic after I saw that comment and tell everyone to blame you for it. :p I even have an idea for such a fic. Anyway, thanks for the review—am glad to know you're enjoying the fic. 

But thank you **SO MUCH** for the reviews! I really do appreciate everyone taking the time to review. So thanks goes out to **_Achilles_**, **_Heehee _**(were you surprised at the Ron treatment in this chapter? Not all H/Hrs hate Ron!), **_leogrl_**, **_Tanya Maxwell_** (goodie! someone who seems to prefer angst!), **_AznGolDragonGod_**, **_Max _**(close, very close to guessing right but no cigar. They're not good for you anyway), **_aaliyah-potter_**, **_ChrisMiss_** (Good luck on finals!), **_Hazelmist_**, **_archforge_**, **_Eric_**, **_Paladin Steelbreaker _**and **_Emili Potter_**.   



	7. Dealing with a Loss

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer: **I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part VII : Dealing with a Loss**

There are times in life when you are so shocked that you literally cannot begin to comprehend what has happened. 

This was one of those times for Harry. He didn't know what to make of Ron's departure. It was incomprehensible. He didn't want to believe that his best friend had just walked out on them like that. He didn't want to believe that he had lost his first friend ever because he fell in love. 

The only problem was he was still waiting to wake up. 

From his side, he heard Hermione sobbing and once again he could move. Embracing her tenderly, he held her in his arms while she cried. 

It was completely awful. It was bad enough that through no fault of his own he managed to lose his best friend but he chased hers away as well. He wouldn't blame her for being angry at him. In fact, he rather expected it. Harry knew that while Hermione and Ron had their share of fights, Hermione valued her friendship with Ron very much. 

He just hoped that she didn't walk away from him. Losing his best friend and the woman he loved in one night would be too much for anyone to stand, much less him. It was hard for him to trust people to be there for him because he did not have anyone like that in his life for so long. Becoming friends with Hermione and Ron had been so good for him. He did not know how he had been able to subsist without them, alone on his island. Ron's refusal to believe him during their fourth year had hurt more than he could say. His fervent hope at that time was for Hermione, at least, to believe and she did that so readily, it warmed his heart. 

The parallels to that situation were frightening. Ron had just walked out, refusing to listen to Harry's side of the story. Only in some ways it was worse, because Harry did not know what Hermione would do and she had so many options. She could blame him and leave him completely alone. She could decide that it wasn't worth losing their best friend to be with him and end their relationship, almost as soon as it had started. 

Or she could decide to stay with him and try to work everything out. Harry knew that she most likely would—no one had as much faith in him as Hermione did, not even himself. Yet he couldn't stop that nagging, worrisome voice from telling him that of course she wouldn't do that, he wasn't worth the effort. 

The sounds of Hermione's tears brought him back to the present. He always hated it when she cried because he felt so completely useless. He suspected there was nothing that could stop Hermione's tears right now, short of Ron coming back to say that he was wrong and didn't mean everything that he had said. That was not likely to happen so Harry was left to his own poor devices. 

He said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm sorry, Hermione. Please don't cry." 

Her tears continued to run, but she still answered him. "I know. I'm sorry too." 

"What have you got to be sorry for? None of this is your fault." 

Hermione looked up from his chest. "Don't tell me you're blaming yourself." 

"I'm not. It's just that I feel like I should have done more." 

"You're not mad at Ron for not believing us?" 

Harry sighed. "Yes, a little. But I know that he's hurting so it's easy to forget about that. I would have been more upset if he had come bursting in here, trying to assert some sort of prior claim on you or something like that. But he didn't and so—" 

"No, he didn't," Hermione agreed softly. "I had rather expected him to say something like that, but he didn't and I can't help but feel bad. I underestimated him and it was really vain of me to think that he had those sorts of feelings left over after such a long time." She sighed. "So I feel guilty because I know that I should have trusted him more. At the same time, we never got the chance to tell him about us ourselves and so it is not our fault." 

"No, it isn't. But somehow, it feels like it is, just like you said." Harry removed his arms from around Hermione to take her hand. He led her over to the couch where they both sat down. She quickly snuggled against him and his arm came around to encircle her waist. They sat there, neither one knowing quite what to say. 

Unfortunately, they couldn't just sit still together forever, no matter how appealing that option sounded to Harry. So he asked, "What should we do now?" 

Hermione closed her eyes to consider her response. It had been a very long day. "I think we should go out to eat." 

"Eat?" 

"I know that's not quite what you expected me to say. The thing is that we can't do anything about Ron right now. He's too angry to listen to us. And if it weren't for that blasted article, he wouldn't be angry at us. We would have told him, although not this soon. It's selfish but I want some time with you for myself. If I had my choice, I wouldn't have told anyone about this for some time so we could just be together without worrying about what people might do or say." 

"We had those two days together," Harry felt obliged to say. 

She smiled at him. "Yes, thank goodness we did. But it's not enough. I don't think there's enough time in the world for me to spend with you. My point is that there's nothing we could do about this. If the news hadn't been spread about, we would be out enjoying ourselves but now that's hard to do. But instead of calling all of our friends' fires, I think we should just spend some time together. We'll let everyone know tomorrow. They've no right to expect a daily update on our lives. And we can ask them for their help about this situation tomorrow. But for tonight—" 

"You just want us to enjoy ourselves," Harry finished for her. "That's going to be a little hard to do." 

"That's why I only suggested dinner. Besides, I'm hungry and I don't feel like cooking. Now, if you want to go into the kitchen, that's fine with me too." 

He snorted. "I doubt that. Trust me, love, there's a very good reason why you didn't find too much food in the kitchen when you looked this weekend. My culinary skills are rather . . . explosive." 

Hermione laughed at his words with a genuine smile lighting up her face for the first time in hours. "Thanks for the warning, love. Now unless you have some place in mind, I know the perfect spot for us to eat." 

**** 

Hermione grinned at the expression on Harry's face. It came close but it wasn't quite a look of horror. He did look rather scared at the choices before him, however. 

"Hermione," Harry began, "could you tell me what sort of food this is again?" 

"It's Thai food, love. It's very good and so I wanted to take you here to introduce you to it." 

"There's curry on this menu. That's not a good sign." 

Hermione could no longer restrain the laughter she had been holding in. The last time she had taken Harry out to a new restaurant, it had been an Indian one. He had inadvertently ordered one of the spicier curries on that menu and had never been the same since when it came to trying out new cuisines. 

"I am_ so _glad that incident is amusing to one of us. I know that I'm still traumatized from that experience." Sarcasm infused Harry's choice of words. 

"You liked the _nan_ at least," she replied, trying to calm herself down. 

"Yes, the _nan_ was very good. If it weren't for that, I would have starved that evening. There was no way I could have eaten that . . . spicy thing that I'd ordered." 

"Well, there's plenty of things on the menu that are not curry." 

"It's not as if I know anything about the stuff that's on the menu though. What's to stop me from having another disastrous order like last time?" 

Hermione sighed in exasperation and leaned over Harry to point at his menu. "Honestly, you can be so helpless at times. See here, Harry? The little red peppers? They tell you how hot a particular dish is. One little pepper isn't very hot at all, while ten is off the scale." 

Harry glared at her. "You're enjoying my predicament, aren't you?" 

"No, I'm not. I was just pointing out the little peppers that tell scared little boys how spicy everything is. That way you won't wind up with a dish that's too spicy to eat." 

"Scared little boy? Me? That sounds like a challenge." 

She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't and you know that. It was merely an attempt to stop your complaints." 

"I have trouble believing that." 

"That's not my fault." 

"No, I never said that." Harry glanced at his menu, shuffling through the various pages. He stopped at one and said, "All right then. I've decided what to get. I'll order this." 

Hermione looked over to see what he was planning to order. "Harry, have you lost your ability to count? That has twelve red peppers!" 

"I know. Just wanted to show you that I'm not a scared little boy." 

"I can think of better ways for you to prove that." Hermione smiled wickedly at the thoughts that began to pervade her mind. "Why don't you try one of those later?" 

He grinned right back at her. "I might, at that. That would be later though. For now, I've made up my mind." 

He was really impossible to deal with, Hermione thought to herself. It was no wonder that he had so many bad eating experiences. "I thought you didn't like food that's too spicy, love. Trust me on this one—tiger's tears is not what you want to order." 

"Sorry but I've made up my mind. This little boy is not scared to try anything." 

"You're going to regret that later." 

"I'm sure that even if I do manage to burn my tongue off, you'll be able to think of something to make me feel better." 

Harry and Hermione grinned at each other, able to put their worries behind them for the moment and simply enjoy their time alone together.   
  


**_Author's note_**—That's another chapter that's finished and as a side note, my sympathies go out to anyone whose tried an authentic version of what Harry's just ordered. In any case, I hoped that you liked the chapter. Please leave a review letting me know what you think, good or bad. Thank you. 

**Nappa**—*shakes head* You did take that threat rather seriously. *sighs* You really hate the idea of D/Hr, don't you. Ah well.   
**HarryNZ**—I don't know if you're reading this but I hope Nappa wasn't too hard on you.   
**Animagus-Steph**—I know that feeling. I felt the same way about my organic chem. lab in college, although the only thing that saved my grade in that class was the tests as I was awful at lab practicals. On any normal day, things would work out fine but NOT when I was getting graded. About the more human remark—I think of as the faults we all have as being the defining trait of being human. So when I remarked that Ron does seem more human to me, that reflects that it is easier for people to find fault with him. I think people, especially H/Hr-ers, are hard on Ron without remembering that we all make mistakes and we all have our own insecurities. And about Hermione being an only child—I know nothing is really said about her family, aside from the time we see her parents in CoS, but she just seems like the classic oldest child to me. Overachieving worrywart and all that.   
**Brian**—Yes this is sort of a developmental chapter. I do have to deal with Ron somehow and I don't think he would be happy about the way he found out about all this. At the same time, I don't think that Harry and Hermione should have given him a call to get his approval during the weekend. They don't need his approval to have a relationship but they do want to stay friends. And yes—we should make an H/Hr drinking game. If anyone should stumble upon a bad H/Hr fic, the alcohol (or caffeine and sugar if you're underaged) should make it better.   
**Heaven**—Thanks for agreeing about the R/Hr scenario's end. Although I do hope never to see it because I think that's a best case scenario—that both get too tired at the same time. Of course, right now, I would be happy with book five. *sigh*   
**ChrisMiss**—I hope your exams went fine—and I do hope they're over considering how long it's been since I last updated. And yes, it does suck that they are getting hounded so but considering the media presence that was in book four—I think that they'll just have to learn to deal with it all. That or ship off Skeeter to a very far away place. 

Also a big **_thanks_** goes out to **archforge** (it's going to take a couple chapters at least to find out about Ron), **Lee**, **AgiVega**, **Hazelmist **(that's what everyone thought ^_^ ), **LizD** (yes they will make up but Ron needs time to cool down before he'll listen to reason), **Eric**, **aaliyah-potter**, **sugar-n-spice**, **smegul**, **toni**, **Janna Rain**, **Noodlejelly**, **Padfoot's Biggest Fan** and **TiffanylovesHerself **for their reviews. I wish I could express how much I do appreciate you leaving them but please believe that I do enjoy reading each and every review I get   



	8. The Long Haul

**Wish I May**   
**Disclaimer**: I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book. 

**Part VIII : The Long Haul**

"I am never, ever going to let you choose the restaurant again." Harry glared at his girlfriend as his gasps over the spiciness of the food slowed down. 

Hermione rolled her eyes at the ceiling. She loved Harry with everything she had but that had been very stupid of him to try that dish. "You can't say that I didn't warn you not to eat it. And besides, if you took my advice and drank the tea instead of the water, it wouldn't have gotten worse." 

"Hermione, that tea was orange. Tea is not meant to be orange. Brown, yes. Green works as well. But not orange." 

"Thai iced tea is supposed to be orange and it's very good. Not to mention the fact that the cream in it would have made you feel better rather than just add to your pain like the water did." 

"Telling me 'I told you so' is not helping me here." 

Hermione smiled at Harry. He could be absolutely helpless at times but she loved him then anyway. Deciding to take pity on him, she scooted her chair closer to his and reached over his plate to pick up his tea. She sipped it, relishing in the unique flavor of the tea. "It tastes perfectly fine, if you ask me. Here, try some." 

Harry made a mock grimace but acceded to her words. "Hmm, not bad," he said after taking a small sip to taste it. 

"I told you so." 

"What did I say about that not helping?" 

She laughed at that and leaned closer to him to give him a quick kiss. Harry wasn't willing to settle for a mere peck so he laid his left hand against the back of her head, stopping her from breaking the kiss. He ran his tongue across her lips, seeking entrance that was soon granted. His tongue playfully dueled with hers for a couple minutes before she turned her head aside to break the kiss. 

Harry sighed with happiness. It was most gratifying to be able to kiss her for real instead of only having his dreams to subsist on. 

Hermione could feel her cheeks turning red as she realized that they had been kissing for quite some time in one of her favorite restaurants. 

"Want to go someplace else?" Harry asked. It was all too clear why Hermione was blushing. 

"Yes please," she responded and he asked for the bill. Harry paid the bill, telling Hermione before she protested that she could pay next time and that they would be able to leave faster if they did not argue. She merely nodded her head and before she would have thought possible, they were out the door. 

Once outside, Hermione moved closer to Harry's side without even thinking. The night air was chilly and being together would be warmer. He put an arm around her waist and drew her closer to him as they walked back to their Apparition point. She leaned against his shoulder and sighed. It was always very pleasant being with Harry but this was something new. As friends they were close but they had never been this close. Hermione was stuck with how natural it felt to be this close to Harry and she wondered how she could have lived so long without having him by her side. 

"A sickle for your thoughts, my love?" Harry asked. 

She glanced up at him and then quickly kissed his cheek. "I like this. Just being together." 

"Me too." He sighed. "I wish I had been brave enough to tell you earlier so we . . ." 

Hermione hushed him before he could finish. "Never mind that now, love. What matters is that we have today and tomorrow, even if we didn't have yesterday." 

"I know, love." Silence lay between them for the next several minutes as they continued walking. Neither of them felt the need to fill the air with words, as the mere act of being together was all that they needed. Harry and Hermione continued to walk until they were out of sight and able to Apparate back to his flat. 

Harry had thought that after the argument with Ron that it would be nice to spend the evening just to themselves before they faced all their problems in the morning. That was not to be for as soon as they arrived back at his place, they could see the tall figure of his godfather waiting by the door. 

"Sirius?" Harry called out. "Is something wrong? Why are you here?" 

Sirius Black merely looked at Harry and how Harry's arm was around Hermione. "No, nothing's wrong. I would say that there's something quite right," he said. 

Both Harry and Hermione blushed deep red, and Hermione hurriedly disengaged herself from Harry's arm. It was one thing to be with Harry when they were alone but she wasn't quite used to letting other people see them together. She again cursed Skeeter and that blasted article. They had been left with no time for themselves and no option of being able to tell their friends about their new relationship personally. Hermione knew that one of the curses of loving Harry Potter would be having her private life exposed. She was willing to live with that but that didn't mean she had to like it – and there was no way she would like something that had caused so much pain to one of her dearest friends. 

"Good evening, Sirius," she said when she finally recovered her voice. "I . . . take it you saw that article too." 

"I think just about everyone in the country has by now, Hermione. Is this a recent development? Or something that you've been—" 

"No, we have just got together," Harry hastily said before Sirius could finish that sentence. "Honestly we have. We only got together this weekend and well . . . we were very happy at being together and we didn't really think of telling everyone right away . . . we would have got to it eventually but—" 

"Don't worry. I believe you. Though why you think I wouldn't . . ." Sirius raised an eyebrow at the young couple. "I get the feeling that it's me who should be asking you two what's wrong. What happened?" 

Harry sighed. "It's Ron." He motioned Sirius to one side so he could open the door. "It's a long story so perhaps we should sit down first." Harry opened the door and they all filed in. 

"Are you thirsty? Want anything to drink?" Hermione asked before sitting down. 

"Already taking over Harry's flat I see," Sirius said. Hermione stuttered in response. "And no thanks, I'm fine. So what exactly happened with Ron?" 

Harry took a deep breath before outlining the problem to his godfather. "Ron thinks that we've been keeping our relationship a secret from him," he said, "when really we only figured out how we felt about each other this past weekend. I don't . . . don't know what to do . . . to say . . . I thought—" 

"We thought that he might be jealous," Hermione picked up as Harry's words faltered. "And I think that might have made him even angrier. But he was mad because he thought we were . . . I guess not acting like friends, not telling him what's going on in our lives, and well . . . that's not the case. If it was up to us, he'd be the very first to know." 

"Did you try telling him?" 

"Of course," Harry said. "Of course, we told him that for what good it did. He didn't bother to listen. If you ask me, that's not acting very friendly." 

"No it's not. But he's hurt and . . . well, Harry, I can understand how you'd be upset at him too but don't you think someone should act like an adult?" 

"I know, I know. But there's not much I think I can do if he's not going to listen." 

Hermione sighed. "I hope that it's only his temper speaking and that he'll come around eventually." She saw Harry's hands shaking out of the corner of her eye. Taking his hand in hers, she continued, "I will never regret loving you, Harry, but I do want our best friend back." 

"Me too." 

"And I'm sure he'll come around," Sirius interrupted before the moment between his godson and his girlfriend could get too intimate. "Don't forget – I believe you and I am certain that Remus will and Ginny will and all Ron's brothers. We'll all be here to help you out. Ron's probably feeling rather miserable as well now but give him time to cool off." 

"And in the meantime, talk to the others?" Hermione asked. 

"Right." Sirius nodded. "Talk to Ginny as soon as you can. Maybe not tonight but soon. Try Ron's brothers as well but Ginny is closer to Ron, right?" 

"Yes," Harry said. 

"But aside from talking to people and trying to enlist their help . . ." Sirius spread out his hands helplessly. "I don't think there's much you can do until Ron is willing to listen to what you say." 

"I hope it's soon," Hermione said so softly that Harry and Sirius could barely hear her. 

"I do too," Harry said, squeezing her hand. 

"No promises on that however. I hate to be pessimistic, but it might take a long time," Sirius reminded them. 

"We'll wait." Hermione's eyes shifted towards Harry's face. "Because that's what friends do." 

He nodded. It looked like he was in for the long haul in more ways than one.   


**Author's Note:** Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the previous chapters -- sorry for not being able to write sooner. It has been a very long time since I updated -- not since the end of finals last semester and finals are approaching again. In any case, I would love to know what you thought of this chapter so please leave a review.   



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